Kate's Weight

12.07.12

Pregorexia: Is Skinny Kate Too Thin For A Pregnant Woman?

Speculation about Kate's weight - estimated to be 125lbs - continues.

Katie Couric said a few months ago that she thought Kate Middleton was 'too thin' and although obstetricians have said that Kate's 125-lb frame is unlikely to have been a contributing factor in her acute morning sickness, speculation continues that she is underweight, or suffering 'pregorexia', the coin termed for women dealing with eating diorders while pregnant.

Time.com carries a report on Kate's weight today, with a statemement from the National Eating Disorders Association, saying that, “some women with disordered eating are able to more easily cope with weight gain during pregnancy because they see it as a sacrifice for an important cause. But others may plunge into deep depression as they struggle with the tension between the idea of weight gain and their body image issues.”

However, the news weekly's website has struggled to get an expert to state categorically that she is too thin to carry a child safely. The report states:

Eating disorders aside, blogs have been bursting with curiosity about whether Middleton is “too thin to conceive” and “too thin to bear an heir.”

The answer, according to Dr. George Macones, who chairs the committee on obstetric practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), is no. A woman who is malnourished or a competitive athlete who has stopped ovulating can have trouble getting pregnant. Likewise, a malnourished pregnant women can be at increased risk of delivering early. But Middleton is neither malnourished nor an Ironwoman competitor. “For the most part, people who are thin do very well during pregnancy,” says Macones, who is also chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University in St Louis.

They have similar pregnancy outcomes as women of normal weight, and they have better outcomes than very overweight women, who are at higher risk of diabetes, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure and C-sections.

It remains to be seen whether Middleton will pack on the 25 to 35 pounds recommended for a healthy pregnancy.